Patti Smith - Horses

Patti Smith's classic debut album remastered

Rolling Stone 500 greatest albums of all time — No. 44

The debut album by Patti Smith, released in 1975, was a key factor and major influence on the New York punk rock scene. At the time she recorded Horses, Patti Smith and her band were favorites in the New York club scene along with Blondie and The Ramones. The former's influence can be best heard in the track "Gloria", a radical retake on the Van Morrison song. "Birdland", in particular, owed more to the jazz which Smith's mother enjoyed than to the influence of punk.

"It isn't hard to make the case for Patti Smith as a punk rock progenitor based on her debut album, which anticipated the new wave by a year or so: the simple, crudely played rock & roll, featuring Lenny Kaye's rudimentary guitar work, the anarchic spirit of Smith's vocals, and the emotional and imaginative nature of her lyrics — all prefigure the coming movement as it evolved on both sides of the Atlantic.

"From its first defiant line, 'Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine,' the opening shot in a bold reinvention of Van Morrison's garage-rock classic "Gloria," Smith's debut album was a declaration of committed mutiny, a statement of faith in the transfigurative powers of rock & roll. Horses made her the queen of punk." — Rollingstone.com

 

 

 

1. Gloria

2. Redondo Beach

3. Birdland

4. Free Money

5. Kimberly

6. Break it Up

7. Land

8. Elegie

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